Annie Maxton

{{Short description|Scottish politician and trade unionist (1888–1981)}}

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{{Use British English|date=September 2017}}

Annie Drummond Maxton (9 February 1888 – 1981) was a Scottish socialist politician and trade unionist.

Born in Pollokshaws, Renfrewshire in February 1888, Maxton was convinced to join the Independent Labour Party (ILP) by her elder brother, James Maxton. She trained as a teacher and became active in the Educational Institute of Scotland.Pamela Anderson Lee and R. D. Anderson, Education and the Scottish People, 1750-1918

The ILP left the Labour Party in 1931, a split which Maxton supported.Gidon Cohen, The Failure of a Dream, p. 156 She was elected to Barrhead Town Council, becoming part of a substantial ILP group there.Barrhead Community Council, The Story of James Maxton, p. 82 When internal disputes rocked the ILP in Glasgow, Maxton did not get involved. As a result, in 1937, she was elected Chairman of the Scottish Divisional Council of the ILP - an important position, given that all the ILP's Members of Parliament were based in Glasgow.Matthew Worley, Labour's Grass Roots

With her newfound prominence, Maxton stood in several elections for the ILP, including the 1940 East Renfrewshire by-election. She stood in the important 1948 Glasgow Camlachie by-election, but took only 6.4% of the votes cast.Richard Ramsay, A Guide to Post-War Scottish By-Elections to the UK Parliament, p. 10 By this point, the ILP was in sharp decline, no longer retaining any parliamentary representation. Although many members left to join the Labour Party, Maxton remained loyal to the ILP, and in 1953 was elected its chair, a position she held until 1958.[https://archive.today/20120716063644/http://library-2.lse.ac.uk/archives/handlists/ILP/ILP.html British Library of Political and Economic Science: ILP] She remained on the party's National Administrative Council for several further years.Independent Labour Party, Report of the Seventieth Annual Conference of the Independent Labour Party (1962)